Toy Story, the original, came out when I was 10. I went to the theatre to watch it and was entranced, and I own (and still occasionally watch) it 15 years later. I loved the characters, I loved the secret suspicion and day-dreaming that the toys were alive shared with others and brought to reality on the big screen. As an adult, I love the themes and inside jokes a missed as a young child. My adult, cynical self suspects that this movie concept originally was green-lighted because it was easy to make toy tie-ins, but I really think the creators of this story wanted to create something long-lasting, not just a cheap marketing gimmick. They told a story with the reverence most children do show their toys. Also, this was the first time I had been introduced to Pixar’s “gag real” during the credits, and I laughed about as hard at those as I did during the movie.
Toy Story 2 came out a few years later, and by this time I was fully on my path to a cynical teenager, who had long ago learned that “sequel” normally meant “sucktastic”. Nevertheless, I went, and I took along my two kids sisters with me. I was so thrilled with the sequel- in a lot of ways it was even better than the original because it dealt with complex themes of loyalty, who you are, and the choices you have to make to decide where you want to be. It wasn’t a “sequel”- it was another story in the same universe. If you watched the movie by itself, it was still a good story. If you watched the first movie before it, it was an excellent continuation of who the characters were. It found, I think, the balance between establishing the characters for new viewers without boring the people who had come before.
When I heard that they were going to make a Toy Story 3 movie, I was excited and worried in equal measures. I was excited, because honestly Toy Story 2 did not seem like the end of the story. It left to many things open, too many things unresolved. It felt like part 2 in a trilogy. I was hopeful that this was going to continue the characters I really loved and felt, in a twisted sort of way, that I had grown up on. But I had been burned before. There was Cinderella 2, the straight-to-video nightmare that I try to forget*. There was Return of Jafar**. This summer alone I went and watched “Shrek Forever After”*** which made me even more worried that it was going to be drawn out crap.
I went in worried, was made more irritated by the fact that a matinée was $7.50, and then watched the Pixar short that was the most insulting thing ever (more on that later). But then, the movie started, and soon I was an entranced little 10-year old again. (Some light spoilers, but I’ll try and keep away from the biggest ones).
The story starts out with Andy playing with his toys, as Andy sees it in his imagination. This I thought was a great little intro- reminiscent of the intro in the first movie where we see Andy playing, but in this case it feels like we’re more involved with the situation and in a weird way, makes it more real. When Andy’s mom comes in with the video camera to tape Andy playing, it feels to us like she’s intruding in our world because she’s intruding in Andy’s, and the toys, playtime. A quick montage of Andy playing and time passing, and the song ends and the toys are in the toy box, planning for some new mission. They steal Andy’s phone, and call it, trying to get him to open the toy box and, assumedly, to get him to play with them again. We hear Andy come and, holy crap, Andy is a huge, 17-year-old near-adult. The ruse doesn’t work for the toys, and we see that the toys have been reduced to Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Ham, Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, Rex, Slinky-dog, and three aliens from Planet Pizza. There were three army men, but after the mission is unsuccessful at getting Andy to play with them, they salute to everyone, and parachute out the window claiming that it was “An honor to serve with you” but the “Army men are always first in the trash” so he has to leave. The toys are worried- Andy’s going to college, and so many of their friends, including Bo Peep, have been given away to other homes. Woody assures them that Andy is going to put them in the attic and take care of them. Andy’s mom comes in and tells him that he has to put things in the attic, the trash, and away for college and also tells Molly that she needs to donate some of her old toys to the Sunnyside Day Care.
Andy packs up all of the toys in a garbage bag, but puts Woody in his box to come with him to college. Woody watches as Andy starts to open the door to the attic, but he stops before going up to help his little sister Molly. His mom, seeing the plastic trash bag in the middle of the road, thinks Andy just left trash there and brings it out to the curb. Woody races to save everyone, and they get out, but crushed at the idea that Andy threw them out they climb into the box bound for Sunnydale while Woody tells them it was a mistake and begs them to stay. Woody tells them Sunnydale will be a nightmare.
When they get to Sunnydale, it appears to be a dream come true, but Woody still is loyal to Andy so he makes his escape. But soon, the toys that stayed behind at Sunnydale find out that newcomers are bound for the “Caterpillar Room”- the room for toddlers who haven’t learned to play gentle with toys. Sunnydale is ruled by a bitter Care-bear knock-off called “Lotsa Hugs” who controls who gets to be in which room through totalitarian tactics. Woody is picked up outside by Bonnie, a sweet little girl who takes him to her house. After a fun day of playing with Bonnie, Woody with the help of Bonnie’s other toys finds how to get back to Andy’s which, thankfully, is just around the corner. Bonnie’s toys ask him to stay, but he tells them that he left Sunnydale because he had to get back to Andy, to which they all gasp and tell him that Sunnydale’s a nightmare and give exposition about Lotsa’s backstory. Woody goes back to rescue his friends, and the rest I can’t give way without spoiling the movie.
First, the awesome. This was an EXCELLENT capstone to this movie. Truly laugh-out-loud, hilarious sequences, good slapstick, good inside jokes. It also was really heartwarming, and bittersweet. Most of the audience was unabashedly crying in parts (including yours truly) and others were getting a bit misty eyed. There were moments of real fear in the movie. It subtly acknowledges the past movies without slowing down the pace or detracting from this story. For instance, when we see what the toys are reduced to, they mention that Bo Peep is gone and Woody looks at his feet and says “Yeah, Bo”. He looks like a man who broke up with someone because she moved away and they couldn’t do a long-distance thing but he’s been given time to deal with it. Another moment was when Jessie had to get in the box to go to the attic. Woody asks her if she’s going to be alright and she nods, faced determined. It acknowledges the characters of the previous movies and established cannon, addresses it quickly, subtly, but keeps the story going and doesn’t dwell on it. The characters are themselves, but they’re still growing and maturing.
That being said, the movie wasn’t perfect. My complaints are relatively small, I’ll grant you, but they’re still there. The music was a bit heavy in spots, and there were some points that are about as subtle as a brick to the face. I know it’s a children’s movie, and I’m not expecting it to be Ang Lee here, but Pixar is capable of doing understatement (as Up showed) and kids don’t need to be beaten over the head. Also, I think it introduces too many new characters. My rule of sequels is you really shouldn’t introduce more than 4 new, named, characters into a sequel because it becomes hard to develop them fully. Still, I think they did do a good job with what they did. The antagonist, Lotsa, gets the bulk of the character development for the new characters, but the rest of them at least you get an impression of who they are. Some of the antagonist’s goons are somewhat interchangeable (though I loved Whoopi Goldberg in it, as small as her part was) and I didn’t get to know Bonnie’s toys as much as I would have liked, but you still got a sense for who they were. The music, aside from being heavy, was not that great (but, I don’t really like Randy Newman). The Spanish version of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” was pretty cool, but the Spanish version of Buzz was a little stereotypical. Somehow, speaking Spanish completely changes your entire personality. There were also some filler scenes that I know people are going to probably complain about (like Ken showing off his collection of outfits to Barbie) but I enjoyed them- I think the pacing was just fine and I that scene in particular I really liked. Plus, it does help to establish the character of Ken more completely.
Now, the super-ugly. I normally enjoy the Pixar shorts, but “Day and Night” was irritating. I mean, the concept was moderately clever- we have the outline of “Day” walking around, not talking except through the sound-effects of whatever he’s in front. He runs into “Night” and “Night” is whatever he’s in front of, but what it is during the night. At first Day is dismissive of Night, and they fight, but soon they find out that have things to show and share each other and ends up with hearing a speech from Dr. Wayne Dyer (who I had never heard of before) talking about accepting things, even if they’re new. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the full short (if anyone can find it, I’d appreciate it) but I can show you part of why it irritates me so. The part that first brings these guys together is, you guessed it, bonding over women’s bodies. Lovely. Before that clip, they were beating the crap out of each other, but stopped to ogle a woman lying on the beach, sunning herself.
Pixar has a habit of treating women like they are, at best, secondary characters, and at worst, little more than props to the men of the story. Aside from the fact that there’s never been a female Pixar main character, occasionally Pixar strays into some pretty terrible gender roles (Cars, for instance). This is irritating, because Pixar has shown it’s potential to be very progressive. Dory (Finding Nemo), Helen (The Incredibles), and Jessie (Toy Story 2 and 3) are all interesting, complex characters. “The Incredibles” actually passes the Mo Movie Measure. But, while women can live in Pixar, it seems like they still have to fight with the idea they can have their own stories as well.
I really recommend this movie. But I also recommend skipping the previews and the short.
*Cinderella was the first movie my parents ever brought home. I watched it so often as a kid that I wore out the VHS. As an adult, I find the character of Cinderella annoying, but realize that I like the other characters more.
** Which was actually slightly redeemed in my eyes by “The King of Thieves”. Robin Williams is the Genie.
*** Advice for watching “Shrek 4″- don’t, unless you really like zombie movies. The story is dead, it’s just still jerking around.
My kids are excited about it.
Peace, Love and Chocolate
Tiffany